The Ruling On Sending The Heart Emoji – Lajnah (Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta’)

Is a heart emoji permissible to send to your mom? How about a picture of a heart with Allah’s name in it? Are these permissible to use?

Answer:

It is not allowed to use the heart symbol or heart emoji because it a symbol that imitates the people of wickedness. The Permanent Committee has mentioned this ruling here.

They also mention in the fatwa that it is not allowed to use it to signify love for Allah. So it should be avoided.

And Allah knows best

Answered by

Faisal Ibn Abdul Qaadir Ibn Hassan
Abu Sulaymaan

Question:

The fatwa explains that having the heart symbol with the name of the prophet ﷺ is the issue, not general use of it, so can this be clarified ?

Answer:

Although the question is regarding using the symbol for the Prophet (ﷺ), the Lajnah mention in the fatwa:

“This action also involves imitation of Fasiqs (people flagrantly violating Islamic law) who use such symbols to display their prohibited love and adoration of others, totally ignoring the ruling of the purified Shari`ah (Islamic law) on this point”

So using this symbol in general involves the imitation of the people of Fisq, who are not allowed to be imitated in Islam as comes in the Hadith:

مَنْ تَشَبَّهَ بِقَوْمٍ, فَهُوَ مِنْهُمْ

He who imitates any people (in their actions) is considered to be one of them

[Saheeh Sunan Abi Dawood no. 1514]

Imam al-Adheemabaadi rahimahullah said:

“Whoever imitates the disbelievers himself, for example in terms of clothes, or other than it or the Fasiqs (الْفُسَّاقِ) or wicked ones or the righteous, pious ones. “Then he is considered one of them”: that is in sin or good as al-Qaari said. al-‘Alqami said: that is whoever imitates the righteous will be honored like they are honored, whoever imitates the the Fasiqs will not be honored…” [Awn al-Ma’bood (11/51)]

When the Fasiqs use this symbol, they do not use the symbol with the name of the Prophet (ﷺ). Nonetheless, since they use this symbol to display their prohibited love, it is not befitting to use this symbol by Muslims even for permissible love [i.e. such as the love of the Prophet (ﷺ) or otherwise].